LIGHT-DUTY VEHICLE MPG AND MARKET SHARES REPORT: MODEL YEAR 1988

This publication reports the estimated sales-weighted fuel economies, sales, market shares, and other vehicle characteristics of automobiles and light trucks. The estimates are made on a make and model basis, from model year 1976 to model year 1988. Vehicle sales data are used as weighting factors in the sales-weighted estimation procedure. Thus, the estimates represent averages of the overall new vehicle fleet, reflecting the composition of the fleet. Highlights are provided on the trends in the vehicle characteristics from one model year to the next. Analyses are also made on the fuel economy changes to determine the factors which caused the changes. The sales-weighted fuel economy for the new car fleet in model year 1988 showed an improvement of 0.1 mpg from model year 1987, while light trucks showed a 0.2 mph loss. The 0.2 mpg loss by the light trucks can be attributed to the fact that every light truck size class experienced either losses or no change in their fuel economies from the previous model year, except for the large van size class. Overall, the sales-weighted fuel economy of the entire light-duty vehicle fleet (automobiles and light trucks combined) has remained relatively stable since model year 1986. Domestic light-duty vehicles began to gain popularity over their import counterparts; and light trucks increased their market shares relative to automobiles. Domestic cars regained 0.3% of the automobile market, reversing the previous trend. Similar to the automobile market, domestic light trucks continued to gain popularity over their import counterparts, partly due to the increasing popularity of domestic small vans.